Extra time in school, however, is important, he said. Students spend about five hours a day on instruction and are in school only 180 days a year, he said.

"We need to expand that," Grego told members and guests of the Suncoast Tiger Bay Club, where he was the main speaker.

Since Grego started as superintendent a year ago, the Pinellas school system has added a six-week summer program called Summer Bridge and an extended learning program called Promise Time at 28 high-poverty schools.

He touted the benefits of those programs and answered a half-dozen audience questions, which ranged from how he felt about the new Common Core State Standards to how to improve respect for teachers to how to ensure that students feel safe in school in an era of increased cyberbullying.

President Donald Trump and top Republicans will promise a package of sweeping tax cuts for companies and individuals, the Washington Post reports, but the GOP leaders will stop short of labeling many of the tax breaks they hope to strip away, putting off controversial decisions that threaten to sink the party's tax …

Twitter chief executive Jack Dorsey last year made a definitive announcement about the company's famous 140-character count amid rumors that the firm would substantially relax the limit. "It's staying," Dorsey told the "Today" show's Matt Lauer. "It's a good constraint for us."